Ayahuasca is a mixture of a least two psychoactive South American plants

Ayahuasca is a mixture of a least two psychoactive South American plants: the liana ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis 

caapi) which gives its name to the beverage; and the leaves of chacruna (Psychotria viridis). The ayahuasca 

beverage constitutes a unique preparation because of its pharmacological action in which the beta-carboline 

alkaloids of Banisteriopsis caapi, playing the role of MAO inhibitors, enable the visionary effects of the 

tryptamine alkaloids found in Psychotria viridis. This specific symbiotic action, which modern science 

identified just a few decades ago, has been empirically known for at least 3000 years by the Indigenous groups 

of the western Amazon, according to archaeological evidence (Naranjo P., 1983). This simple fact deserves our 

attention because it reveals the extraordinary investigative potential of these ethnic groups, based on the 

compilation of information from the subjective perspective, which challenges our conventional western approach 

that tends towards exclusive objectivity with a rational focus. In other words, the psychotherapeutic discoveries 

of these Amazonian Indigenous peoples are not the result of mere chance or erratic investigation following the 

trial and error approach (Narby 1998). It is significant that both families of alkaloids of ayahuasca are also 

present in our bodies (Strassman 2001) and affect the serotonergic system, which suggests the existence of a 

natural, endogenous ayahuasca (Metzner et al 1999). Human use of use ayahuasca does not, therefore, constitute 

an external agent that could violate our physiology, but rather, it appeals to natural neuro-pharmacological 

processes, empowering them in ways that amplify their normal functionsi

. 

Interest in the topic of ayahuasca among populations of developed countries has increased over the last 20 years 

to the point of becoming a fashionable phenomena. Enthusiasm for this topic has widely exceeded the 

framework of the academic community and scientific laboratories. This interest is derived from the expansion of 

self-exploration initiated in the 1960s; an exploration that sought to confront the lack of satisfying answers from 

the churches, the philosophical schools, and the psychotherapeutic traditions. It was a reaction to the general 

secularization of society that has abolished the ritual forms, liturgies or symbolic experiential spaces that permit 

the individual to experience, in a sensitive manner, the semantic dimensions of life and to consequently give 

meaning to their everyday life

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